Dr. Krysta Manning nearly called it quits on her dental profession just a few short years in. At the time, the Louisville-based dentist was living with her husband and newborn triplets in Colorado Springs, serving in the United States Air Force. It was all too much.
Looking back at that time, the owner of Solstice Dental & Aesthetics, an almost one-year-old dental practice, remembers just trying to get through every day. Now, she practices dentistry on her own terms in a way that gives the best to her family and patients, prioritizing her own self-care and the care of her tightly knit staff.
Manning was born in Louisville and raised in Russellville. She received an undergraduate degree with a dual major in biology and classics from Transylvania University in Lexington. A year later, she was off to dental school at the University of Louisville.
“In my second year, I commissioned with the Air Force,” she said. “I had a three-year scholarship, finished dental school, and did a one-year fellowship in development dentistry at the Underwood & Lee Clinic [in Louisville], where I worked with adult patients who had developmental disabilities. From there, I went to the Air Force in Colorado Springs.”
Manning was first stationed at Peterson Air Force Base and then the Air Force Academy, serving as a general dentist in both locations.
“The fellowship is where I learned about working with special-needs patients, and the Air Force is where I learned the digital dentistry,” she said.
Manning was able to earn more than 200 hours of continuing education credits and work alongside numerous specialists. She was thrust into leadership positions from day one.
“In the Air Force, everyone was trying to make each other better,” she noted. “It was a neat environment that way.”
Bringing technology back to Louisville is a source of pride for Manning, especially since she said most dental practices outside of New York or Los Angeles still do things the old-fashioned way. Solstice performs same-day crowns, among other treatments that are technologically advanced and eco-friendly. The facility boasts a waterless vacuum system that saves approximately 350 gallons of water per day compared to other similarly sized dental offices. It has a digital radiograph system, which emits up to 90 percent less radiation than conventional film systems and eliminates the need for film manufacturing and the use of toxic chemical processors and fixatives. And rather than use traditional goopy materials to make tooth impressions, Solstice has a system that’s 100 percent digital and, therefore, much faster as well as easier to handle.
In addition, Solstice uses BPA-free composite resins and oral appliances, recycled and nontoxic supplies and cleaning materials, lead-free patient X-ray aprons and shields, and adhesives with either low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can have adverse health effects.
Also, there is a piano. Manning often plays it to patients who are children, elderly or have developmental disabilities and need help relaxing. It sounds unusual, but that is something this doctor is used to being.
“I was a weirdo in the Air Force; I didn’t fit in real well,” she quipped. “I was the only female dentist at Peterson, so they used to make fun of me for calling my fatigues my outfit.”
At the Air Force Academy, even without her piano, Manning’s gentle touch proved effective.
“I mostly treated young, healthy mouths at the academy, but the most interesting thing about treating them is that 80 percent of them fell asleep in my chair,” Manning said. “They were just so exhausted; they work those kids hard … They loved going to the dentist.”
Manning met her husband, Ryan, through a mutual friend, and the couple wed two years after their first date. Ryan, a CPA at Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, and Krysta have been married nine years.
The Air Force medical profession scholarship Krysta received to complete dental school required one year of service per year of school. While serving as a dentist, she also was in charge of social activities at the academy and the base—basically making sure cadets were happy and deployable.
But there was a catch for Krysta: At the end of the second year, she gave birth to triplets.
“I wanted to be near my mommy, so it just wasn’t a good fit for our family,” she said, adding that had she stayed in after the three-year mark, she probably would have pursued the hospital dentistry residency through the Air Force in San Antonio. “I thought really long and hard about it but ultimately decided I needed to be near family as a mother of three young babies.”
Working from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day only six weeks after giving birth took a toll.
“My daughters had only been out of the NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] for a week, and my son was still in, but there was no more time off,” Manning recalled. “I felt crazy. There was a lot of confusion. I was struggling with postpartum depression, was working long days … I had a nanny five days a week taking care of my newborns. I didn’t sleep at night—because three newborns.”
During her last six weeks in Colorado, Manning’s husband had accepted a new position in Louisville, so he brought two babies home to Kentucky with him, and she kept one.
“She was so much harder than the other two combined; that’s how we decided,” Manning said with a laugh. “We had these two nice babies—then we had the mean child. I kept the mean child. But it was actually relaxing, because I only had one child to take care of, and we had already moved everything back to Louisville. That’s actually what made me become a minimalist, was that time of having all of my stuff in one room.”
To this day, Manning is a minimalist and keeps a simple capsule wardrobe.
Leaving the Air Force was tough in some ways. One notable factor was that it was like working in “dental Disneyland. If a patient needed something, you did it. If it was the ideal treatment and it would serve them well, you did it,” Manning said. “And you didn’t have to worry about attrition or no-shows.”
Manning said this instilled in her “really strong dental ethics. Because I worked in that environment, I know what ideal is, and I’m not going to push you toward what your insurance is going to cover,” she said. “I will tell you what your insurance will pay for, and I’ll tell you that I, maybe they, recommend something different. I’m willing to let people make that choice.”
Manning also offers free second opinions for patients.
Upon her return to Kentucky, Manning admits she didn’t know if she wanted to continue being a dentist.
“I just wanted a break,” she said. “I was mad and tired, and I was still struggling with postpartum depression and getting over that. But I don’t sit idly well, so I started working on my MBA at UofL in August in the evenings.”
Two years later, she received her Master of Business Administration degree in entrepreneurship.
“I didn’t have to be the triplet mom or the dentist—just go be myself for a while,” she recalled. “That helped me heal more than anything else.”
Toward the end of those two years, Manning began working part time and then gradually full time as a dentist at Home of the Innocents in Louisville.
“I was hesitant to go back to doing [dentistry], but I think what helped me there was that the population there was a population in need,” she said.
This approach to helping others—combined with her dental innovation inspiration from the Air Force and growing appreciation as a mother for things natural, environmentally friendly and holistic—led her to start Solstice. The company’s name pays homage to the birth of her triplets on the summer solstice.
Her practice has a partnership with Cedar Lake, Kentucky’s largest private nonprofit organization serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Solstice adopts a different charity every month, has an autism desensitization program, and provides a therapy dog to patients.
“On the other hand, we’re doing digital dentistry and the same day, crowns and Botox and fillers, because that stuff is fun. That’s like the fun part of my profession, and then the other stuff is kind of the heart,” Manning said. “I get to mix the fun parts of dentistry with the giving parts of dentistry. I don’t know anywhere that I could have worked that would allow me to do that, unless I created it. And I also wanted to set hours that would allow me to be with my family.”
Solstice’s hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., three days a week.
“It gets me time to get things done and to walk my kids to school—to do life,” she said. “But during that time, I still have the phones forwarded to my cell phone for emergencies, and that way, we’re kind of a small-town feel. We try to be accessible.
“Patients get me every time they come in. For me, it’s a lifestyle business—I’m not going to create a chain or open up five locations. People are starting to reject the idea that something as personal as their oral health should be [performed by] a conglomerate.”
The backbone to Solstice, according to Manning, is her staff. They work out together, participate in team-building activities, produce music videos for social media, and hang out after hours.
“I think that’s the only way to run a business,” she said. “If I fail, then I will have done it the way I feel like is the best and most ethical and the right way to treat my patients and my team.”